Passive income is the holy grail for most students who are looking for ways to earn without having to sacrifice time spent on studies. The biggest challenge, however, is that it is usually difficult to generate passive income without an upfront investment of oodles of precious time. You could go for months without making a single dollar, but once it takes off, you rest easy as you earn without having to lift a finger. Below are five of the topmost passive sources of income that earn highly without requiring too much of your attention:

1. Affiliate Marketing

If you get the right companies you can create a recurring stream of passive income from affiliate marketing. The beauty with affiliate marketing is that it is easy and permits you to start earning income immediately you submit articles promoting or linking certain products. However, you’d need a lot of patience and persistence to boot. You’ve to work hard to see things happen. Many people give up and conclude it is impossible to make money online.

There are several ways to do it, and they include organic traffic, paid traffic, cost per action, and social media posting.

With organic traffic, you build a website and get traffic from Google, which in most cases comes from the content you write. Google will rank the articles you write and the people who visit your site might click the links to products you promote.

You’ve to pay for paid traffic, hence the name. You could pay about $0.20 per click to your page, and if you get, say, ten clicks, you’ll pay $2 for traffic. And if you have on your page an affiliate link getting you $20 per sale, you just earned $18 in profit, if the visitor goes ahead to buy. Granted, that is an oversimplification of paid traffic, but that is basically how it happens.

Cost per Action attracts a smaller amount of money on certain provided actions. You could get a few cents for visitors signing up for a free trial or email list and etc. The beauty of it all is that if there are enough people signing up for stuff or making other stated actions, the money will accrue to a decent size. You can also use social media to market products and earn. You just need to post affiliate links on your social media pages and bam! You start earning! It is prudent to take advantage of how convenient affiliate marketing is to rake in money. Melissa Feemster, General Manager of Rakuten Affiliate Network projects that the affiliate marketing industry will grow in leaps and bounds in the next few decades.

2. Peer to Peer Lending

This method of making money requires you to first have money. Websites such as Bitbond, Prosper, and Lending Club permit users to request for loans. Investors choose whom to lend. You are likely to rake in higher interest rates here than you would in the stock market. Just to be safe, you can diversify your lending depending on people, projects, and loan risks.

3. Building Business Systems

This is perhaps the most intimidating of all passive sources of income and strangely the cheapest to start. Business system in this case means employing contractors to do some work and you reap the revenue the business generates. For instance, you could sell knives on Etsy shop. You might need money to buy the first inventory.

4. Stock Dividends

Some companies pay dividends to individuals who buy stock. Most people buy stock with the belief that it will hold better value in the future. For example, you could buy stock for $10 today and hope it will accrue to $100 in the future. The real bummer is that you need money to invest here, but that is so much like every other investment. There is practically no way you are going to earn money anywhere if you aren’t willing to invest time and money, at least.

5. Self-Publish an EBook

EBooks are hugely popular nowadays, and the majority of them are self-published. You’d of course need to put in time, but the potential to generate decent income afterwards is very high. And the process of writing an eBook can be surprisingly simple. You can write it in word, export it to PDF format, use Canva to create a cover, upload it to Send Owl, and link your PayPal account, then wait for money to flow.

According to Barry Eisler, self-publishing eBooks is the way to go. When he was given a two-book deal for $500,000, he turned it down and rejoined based on what is happening in the industry, I can do well in the long term on myself.

There are more methods of making decent money online, but these are the topmost and most effective. Understandably, they might require you invest a little bit of your time and lots of money, but once they start earning, they never stop, and won’t need your undivided attention ever again. Definitely worth a try. Warren Buffet says that if you do not find ways to make money while you are asleep, you will work to your death.

“Saving early and often could make you financially secured in the future.” This is one of the messages a lot of millennials hear on a daily basis. That’s why it influences them to save at least 15% of their paycheck every month and invest it somewhere.

Although millennials may seem quirky, as if they don’t care about what’s happening around them, it doesn’t mean that they are good for nothing. Most of them were at an impressionable age during the financial crisis and this left an imprint in their hearts. You can say it’s a lesson learned the hard way. That said, we have gathered some of the best investment advice millennials should consider.

1. Putting Money in Real Estate

Perhaps, the easiest way for millennials to invest their hard-earned cash is through buying mutual funds based on property. If they’re up for the risk, and would love to enjoy more returns, then real estate investment trusts, such as REITs are also worth considering. Fortunately, even those with limited knowledge about real estate can still invest– with the help of an investment broker. These experts would evaluate and purchase the real estate funds on behalf of the investor.

2. Invest in Bitcoins

There’s a lot of reasons why you should be investing in bitcoins. One of them is the “investability” characteristic bitcoins have. It opens the idea that investors could take capital and have exposure to this type of asset class. This has been made possible because the bitcoin exchange trading volume has an average of $1 billion a day– that was back in 2016. Let’s also not forget the fact that bitcoins also have the same liquidity of the largest gold ETF. Considering that, bitcoin could be a very liquid asset over time– this is what a lot of expert traders love. Not just that, it’s accessible wherever you are, making it more liquid as compared to assets siloed with borders.

3. Pick the On-Demand Stocks

Since most millenials are probably the children of the stock-loving Baby Boomers, there’s a great possibility that their parents are also encouraging them to join the stock market, and they should. For the following years, the stocks would continue to deliver bigger returns than both cash and bonds. This could help the millennial’s cash to grow their own business through commissions and fees.

4. Try Crowdfunding

Most older investors would worry whether their money is safe or not with crowdfunding– this is what makes millenials different; they are ready to take the risks. They’d invest in new tech companies, craft breweries, and many more– just like how they buy stuff through Kickstarter.

Additionally, there’s a reason why a lot of young investors are getting interested with using online crowdfunding services, such as property crowdfunding and strategic land investment. Although most millennials don’t have a home nor pension yet, the know the best ways to grow their funds, and that includes taking advantage of technology. With Property crowdfunding, millennials could earn some regular returns on their investment after a period of time.

5. Invest in Startups

One of the good reasons why you should be investing in startups, especially if you’re a millenial is the fact that it will help you diversify your portfolio, and this would have a positive impact on your overall performance as it will also introduce private equity and you’ll be able to venture capital into the mix. Likewise, the performance of startups isn’t always affected by the macro-level market shifts because they could easily pivot. That’s why you wouldn’t even have to worry about the risks related to it, but be able to increase returns.

Millennials. These are people born between 1981-1992; they have a different outlook about work; very different from what the Generation X and Baby Boomers had. This generation is the Internet generation, and could easily access the information they need right in front of their fingertips. That’s why it’s also a generation who wouldn’t just go with the flow, but would be willing to take risks just to achieve their goals. When it comes to financial matters, they will be willing to invest as long as they would be able to gain positive returns after That said, we hope that these investment ideas could help the millennials out there determine which investment to try.

The advancement of technology has resulted in many changes in the economy. One of the areas that have revolutionized is the currency system. We now have a digital currency which is popularly known as a cryptocurrency. This is the type of money that exists in the virtual space. Nobody can claim ownership over it. One popular example of cryptocurrency in Bitcoin. Unlike the traditional currency which is tangible and easily regulated, Bitcoins are opposite. They operate as a separate entity without any form of interference from government or other organizations.

What are Bitcoins

Bitcoins are electronic currencies and can also be referred to as cyber currency. They are a form of digital currencies that are created through complex mathematical computations. The computation is done under close supervision of millions of computer users known as miners.

Bitcoins flow freely without any level of control. Nobody can track the behavior of this currency nor track the history of the transactions that one has made. They are also independent of the existing economic conditions. Their value is not affected by cases of inflation and deflation.

History of Bitcoins

Bitcoin came into existence in the year 2008 and was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto. He brought it into the public domain after publishing a white paper named “Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System.” The paper mainly gave a detailed description of the first version of Bitcoin was released in 2009. Later on, Satoshi made a transaction with a cryptographic guru, Hal Finney.

In 2009, the exchange rate of Bitcoin was 1,309.03 BTC = US$1. The values were reached upon after taking into consideration key factors that were used to generate the bitcoins. The main factor was the cost of electricity that used to run the computer. Since its inception, Bitcoins journey into the financial mainstream has been unstoppable. Although it used to face some level of resistance, key players in the financial world are now embracing it.

How Bitcoins work

Since bitcoins operate in a virtual world, there are no central banks that store your coins. However, owning the can be compared to having physical gold coins. You can use the coins to pay for good and services on online stores. You also have an option of keeping the bitcoins for future use. Maybe you can store them as you wait for their value to rise.

The transactions of bitcoins take place from one digital wallet to another. This wallet is a personal database that exists on your computer, smartphone, and tablet. The wallet can also be stored in the cloud so that you can access it from a remote location.

After you have installed a Bitcoin wallet on your device, the wallet will generate your first Bitcoin address. You also have an option of creating other addresses. You can then send you to address to other people such as friends and then request the same from them. All the transactions are conducted through these addresses. However, it’s important to note that these addresses can only be used once. This feature enhances the security of the currency system and makes it difficult for third parties to steal the data or monitor the nature of the transaction.

The bitcoin network relies on a system known as blockchain. This is a shared public ledger that proves all the successful transactions. It enables Bitcoin wallets to calculate their balances and also verify new transactions. Since all the bitcoin transactions take place between wallets, there must be a way in which the system proves the occurrence of the transaction. This feature is enabled by a small piece of information known as the Private Key. The key signs each transaction and provides a reliable proof the transaction was executed by the owner of the wallet.

Another key role of the private key is to prevent the transaction from being changed or tampered with once it has been completed. The transactions taking place between users are usually confirmed by the cryptocurrency network after ten minutes.

The cost of Bitcoins in dollars

According to the data from Coinbase.com, the value of bitcoin has been on a steady rise over the years. Currently, the value of 1 Bitcoin equals 3153.73 US Dollar. One reason for the surge is the warm reception that it has received from different quarters. Various governments are now recognizing it as a legal form of payment. A good number of major retailers are also accepting Bitcoin in paying for some goods.

Things you can buy with bitcoins and where Bitcoin is accepted:

Giant retailers such as Amazon, CVS and the Home Depot are now incorporating cryptocurrency as a form of paying for goods and services. Due to the nature of Bitcoin, most of these retailers are online stores.However, some of the traditional shops are also embracing it. This is in contrary to the past where they were viewed from a negative perspective. In addition to tangible goods, you can also pay for some services such as air tickets and obtain discounts from various stores. Some of the major online stores that accept Bitcoin include Microsoft, Dell, Overstock, and TigerDirect. The mentioned stores deal with computer hardware devices.

Some airlines have also embraced this form of currency. Travelers can pay for air ticket using this type of currency. Such airlines include Air Lituanica and AirBaltic. There are also some travels booking companies that have embraced the use of cryptocurrency.

Steps of how to buy your first Bitcoin

1. Set up your Bitcoin wallet. The first step is to set up a cryptocurrency wallet. This is achieved by simply downloading it as mobile application or software on your computer. You can also set up a cloud wallet.

2. Decide on where to buy the currency: You can buy your first Bitcoin. Some sellers can offer to sell the Bitcoin directly in exchange for cash or credit card. Most users prefer to buy Bitcoin from coinbase.com. This website and the mobile app requires you to set up an account then add your preferred form of payment, whether it is credit or debit card. You can also search for reliable sellers before completing the transaction.

3. Once you have bought the coins, you will be required to transfer them into your wallet. The step simply involves giving the seller your Bitcoin address. The coins should be in your account after some minutes. It all depends on the speed of the seller.

Since you are a beginner, it is always advisable to start with a low value of coins. You will be able to master the tricks of the cryptocurrency as time goes by. It is no doubt that crypto currency is evolving to be a major currency, the earlier you embrace it, the better.

The world of real estate has always been highly competitive, but if you want to find success as an entrepreneur in the real estate market, then becoming a hard money lender could be your best option. But before you start lending hard money, you need to weigh out your investment and financial strategies. And once you have gained confidence, you will gain success in your business. Here’s a look at how you can become a successful real estate hard money lender.

As a hard money lender, real estate investors buying discounted cash deals will be your primary clients. Your financial provisions can help them acquire the capital for purchasing, renovating or wholesaling a property. However, there are some real estate investors who will approach you to use the loan money as a bridge till such time they can find more conventional financing, or even sell off their property later on so that they can pay off their accumulated debt. This gives you a wide range of potential clients for your business.

All you need is is money — or relationships

If you have money, well and good, but if you don’t, then you can always pool the money from other investor and wealthy individuals looking for a good return on their money. For this, you need to build up a good professional relationship with other potential investing partners so that you can raise the amount that you need. With nothing but a good liaison, you no longer need to worry about the money for your business.

The biggest advantage real estate investors get for doing business with hard money lenders is that these lender can qualify their deal quickly without too much investigation about who is seeking the loan. The situation is quite the opposite when investors approach a bank for their loans, and the process is long and full of complications. In order to avoid such a situation, a smart investor would approach you first for their urgent loan requirements. Isn’t that wonderful? Take a look at the following benefits of lending money to investors as a hard money lender:

You can begin lending quickly Hard money lenders dont need an office. You can do this job easily by yourself. Investors require funding for their projects, and doing business with you will give them the opportunity to get instant access to loans. When borrowing money from you, investors don’t have to go through waiting time, red tape or transactional delays that are common when seeking financial assistance from a bank. You spare the investors all these troubles. The approval process becomes way simpler and shorter. Banks usually operate in highly risk-adverse manner because of which several projects fail to gain approval from banks. But when the same investors come to you for loan, you can lend them money at more flexible terms for a short term which offers mutual benefits to both the parties. Because of the risk involved, you have the upper hand of keeping the interest rates high. Generally, interest rates for such loans range between 10-12%, especially depending on the perceived loan risk. You can also charge points ranging between 1-3% to issue the loan (where each point is equivalent to a percent of the total loan value). As a result, you can expect solid returns, and earn a good amount in this business.

You get to invest your money over and over Hard money loans are typically short term. BorrowersAs soon as one loan ends you can reinvest that money with another investor and charge handsome loan origination fees between 1 and 3 points.

In case the borrower plans to do a rehab or flip on their residential property, you might want to keep the duration limited to 6 months. This will encourage the borrower to get in and out of the deal without any procrastination. It is always safe and less risky to opt for 6 months. It generally works in favor of the lenders.

You get to keep the property In case the borrower defaults, you can foreclose on the property which will allow you keep an amazing deal well below the actual market value of the property. So, in order to stay prepared for foreclosure, you need to be smart and learn all about the foreclosure process. Since this process is different for every state, you need to find out what your role is and how much it can cost you. With proper knowledge, you can save lots money involved in foreclosing a property, and avert any kind of loss. Eventually, it will become a win-win situation for you and your business.

Hard money lenders have limited risk exposure In this business, borrowers are made to put in some of their money as part of the deal. This helps you lower your risk as a lender. Moreover, it also motivates the borrower to take the deal seriously so that everything goes according to plan. In case the borrower is late, you can charge late fee. All these processes work in your favor as the lender, while helping out the borrower with the funding. As you minimize the risk, your chances of making it big in this business also increase.

Being as a hard money lender is profitable If you can minimize the risk, you will end up earning impressive amounts of money, especially because the interest rates are so high, and because the borrower cannot just walk away without making the payment. The solid foreclosure clauses, charges for late payments, and the ability to get into the business even without having any money of your own are the major advantages of becoming a hard money lender. If you possess the qualities of being diligent and careful, chances are high that you will enjoy solid returns with minimal risk involved.

Capital assets refer to anything you own and use for investment or personal purposes such as your house, land, building, car, trademarks, patents, machinery, leasehold right, jewelry or stock. When you sell a capital asset for more than you paid to obtain it, you must pay taxes on the gain. This is known as capital gain tax.

The profit or gain that rises from the sale of the capital asset is referred to as capital gain. The gain is charged to tax in the year the transfer of ownership takes place. However, capital gains are not applicable when the asset is inherited because no sale takes place. But if the person who inherits the asset sells it, capital gain tax is applicable.

Different types of capital gains are not treated the same. The tax rate varies dramatically between short term and long term capital gains.

Short Term Capital Gains

These are profits made from investments owned for a year or less. The clock begin ticking from the time the asset is transferred to you up to when you sell it. A major drawback of these type of capital gains is that they are not offered a special tax rate.They are applied the same tax rate as your normal income.

For example, if you have $60,000 in taxable income and $5,000 from short term investments, your taxable income will be $65,000. If you file tax as an individual, you are in the 25 per cent tax bracket and you will owe $12,021.25 in income tax. This amount can further be reduced if you qualify for tax deductions or credits.

Long Term Capital Gains

If you sell your capital assets at a profit after holding them for 366 days or more, it is classified as a long term capital gain. Long terms investments are more favorable than short term trading due to special tax treatment applied to them. They are applied a tax rate that is lower rate than short term capital gains especially for a person in the highest or lowest tax bracket.

Currently, the lowest tax bracket is applied a capital gain tax rate of 0%. This means that those in 10-15% tax bracket are not required to pay capital gain tax from assets held more than one year. Individuals in the 25%-35% tax brackets, capital gain tax is applied at 15 per cent while for the wealthy citizens who fall in the highest tax brackets, capital gain tax rate is 20%

The tax rate on long term capital gains is significantly reduced to encourage businesses and individuals to keep their investments.

Net capital gains

This refers to the difference between capital gains and capital losses. It means, if your investment ends up losing money instead of generating profit, you can use the losses to reduce the capital gain tax.

The IRS allows you to compare your capital gains and capital losses for the year to and determine your net loss or gain. In case you had a loss, you have a limit of $3,000 yearly to reduce the taxable income. You can also carry forward the additional losses to the following years to help offset capital gain taxes.

Our property locators use a variety of tools and contacts to find discounted properties to offer you as investments. Among the best sources are sites like AssetColumn.com, Auction.com. We also contact homeowners directly by partnering with home buying services such as SellHouseFast.com. It is our mission to find only deals with upside potential and acceptable return rates.

Below are several ways you can find greatly discounted properties.

Foreclosure Listings

Among the place you are most likely to bump into discounted properties is on bank foreclosure listings. When for instance Tom fails to pay his mortgage for a long period of time, the lender will repossess the house and list it for sale. Sad as it may be for the person being kicked out, it is a big opportunity in case you want to spend less. The bank will list the property at a discounted price because they are into money lending and not the management of properties. Because foreclosure listings may take some time, the house may need repairs and some updating, making the bank offer more discount.

Online Classified Ads

Technology has revolutionized property hunting making it extremely easy to access a wide variety of properties. Every day hundreds of properties are listed and all you need to do is check them out and settle on what suits your needs and budget. You are able to filter out your search to find the best property at the least price and discounts too can be offered making it really advantageous for you. For instance, John just turned 21 and he needs a home. He goes online and searches for the cheapest house to suit his budget. He finds it and contacts the seller for viewing and negotiations. And just like that, he is able to move out without training financially.

Lead Gen Websites

The realization that distressed homeowners may take the time to find a buyer through the other listings gave birth to the idea of lead generating websites. These sites are where people directly post their homes for sale without going through real estate agents. It is a great place to find a property at an incredibly low price. In case you are wondering how, it is because the lesser the number of middlemen in a property sale, the cheaper it may turn out. One such site is needtosellmyhouse.com where you can find a huge selection of houses you can choose from whether for a home or profit.

Court Auctions

An interesting source of discounted properties is court auctions and till date, many people have successfully acquired property through them. Most of the time, the highest bidder gets the property and that is of a great advantage as the price may be quite low as compared to other property listings. You may have been told that getting a property this way may be risky but truth is that although some risk may be involved but it is as safe as getting property from anywhere else. It is always good to get in contact with people who have acquired their property through this way for guidance.

Personal Connections

Although old fashioned, but connections with people like real estate attorneys or city officers can grant you access to unbelievable real estate deals. They are always in the know of what is on sale at the most friendly price and will keep you in the loop. Make a couple of calls and voila, you will get yourself a perfect home before anyone else notices that the property was up for sale. Because with such tips and alerts on available discounted property do not always have a lot of competition, you will easily find them at affordable prices.

Absentee Owners

You can decide to the unique way by approaching homeowners who have not listed their properties yet. These owners may have houses that they are not currently living in and a little talk with them may end up in you becoming the new owner. For example, John inherits a house that he is not sure what to do with it and therefore leaves it unoccupied for some time. Contacting him about buying the house may just be what he has been waiting for and the pricing will be friendly. You can drive around to find these properties or you can contact those who have listed homes for rent and convince them about the idea of buying. Being a private arrangement between you and the owner, you will pay less because you cut out agencies and other middlemen.

Real Estate Wholesalers

There are those people or real estate agencies that buy the property from distressed homeowners and then set them up for sale at some profit. Because they deal with a large number of properties, their profit margins are small but the cumulatively make them a big profit. When you acquire property from them, you will, therefore, spend less than getting the same property from people selling just a couple of properties. In case you are into the real estate business, then these wholesalers can ensure you make a handsome profit. Their prices are always negotiable and that may mean you pay less.

When we see a house we like, contact the seller and bid as early as possible. Most properties are sold to the first person to contact. Be the early bird and you may land on a discount you could have never imagined. You can sign up for automatic emails for new property listings from your reals estate agents. Another way to get discounted properties is looking for properties that have been in the listing for a long time. Being the last may be advantageous because the seller reaches a point they just want to release the property and will allow amazing discounts. For instance, Nancy wants to sell her house and lists it. Several months later, no one has bought it and she really wants to get out of it and therefore will accept a lower price as long as it is getting sold.